


Not Just the Richest Avenger

by QuarkInShiningArmour



Category: Iron Man (Movies), Marvel Cinematic Universe, The Avengers (Marvel Movies)
Genre: Gen, Hurt/Comfort, Kinda?, The Avengers are good friends and Tony is a troubled soul
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-12-24
Updated: 2018-12-24
Packaged: 2019-09-25 19:40:51
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,925
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17127518
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/QuarkInShiningArmour/pseuds/QuarkInShiningArmour
Summary: Tony keeps giving his friends ridiculously expensive presents, but they're too polite or oblivious to say anything.  Thankfully Hulk has no such qualms.





	Not Just the Richest Avenger

**Author's Note:**

> Part of the Captain Handsome gift exchange, hope you enjoy!

It had started with Bruce’s lab.  Tony had had it built, almost overnight following the first time that the Avengers had assembled, straight after the battle of New York.  A whole lab, specially designed with state-of-the-art equipment, with walls that could (theoretically) withstand a small bashing from the Hulk.

Bruce had been touched, really, he had.  It was a surprisingly thoughtful gesture from a man known more for his brash nature than for being caring.  The lab was a place him and Tony could work together, a place that Bruce could look at with some stability for once, without having to think about being on the run.

Years had passed since then, aliens (of more than one variety) had been vanquished and Bruce had just about survived a trip to space and back, but he’d still returned to the lab Tony had given him at the end of all of that.  It was different, though, having his lab at the Avengers compound.  Without the restriction of space that was unavoidable in New York, Tony kept on piling more onto the lab, buying more and more equipment, expensive equipment, some of which Bruce didn’t even know how to use. 

The other Avengers had seen something similar happen in other areas of Tony’s life as well.

For Steve, it had been new defensive gear, old-school motorbikes, gadgets and clothes way beyond the tastes of a regular kid from Brooklyn.  To start with, he’d thought Tony was trying to make up for something, make amends for how things had gone between them.  He’d assured Tony it wasn’t necessary, but the gifts had kept coming.

Rhodey got more expensive ammunition than he knew what to do with, Natasha got arc-reactor tech built-in to her taser weapons, Clint got so many collapsible arrows he ran out of space in his quiver (causing Tony, of course, to buy him a bigger quiver). 

None of them felt that anything was strange enough to question it. 

Thor, though, had a different perspective.  The first gifts he’d gotten from Tony he’d seen as a nice gesture, but, frankly, not anything he needed.  When it came to weapons and technology, Asgard far surpassed anything Earth could produce, and as a prince, he had no lack of wealth.  The third time Tony presented him with a new weapon, Thor had confronted him.

“I know you think you are being kind, Stark, but on Asgard we judge a warrior by the strength that they possess, not by the weapons that they wield.  Mjolnir is an exception to that rule only because she is almost an extension of myself, a tool through which to channel my power.  I have no need of your toys, I have enough power within me already.” 

Tony had seemed put-out at that.  Thor was a little surprised; Stark always seemed so sure of himself, but this time there were no quips or arguments, he just withdrew.

Things had come to a head when people had started talking more with the Wakandans, learning from their technology and accepting their vibranium-abundant gifts.

Peter had been ecstatic when first Tony had presented him with his first high-tech suit.  But since he met Shuri, he’d had less use for his gifts.  Shuri had designed Peter a bullet-proof suit, equipped with re-usable vibranium-infused web fluid.  She’d designed Steve’s new shields, Sam’s new wings, even a flexible top for Banner so he wouldn’t have to keep waking up shirtless in public.

Feeling out of control of the situation, Tony upped his game.  He re-designed the compound for the umpteenth time, designed a training complex for Peter, offered Sam an interface, like Friday or Karen, for his own suit.

It was Bruce and Thor that first figured out that something wasn’t right.  Each had been offered not-so-sensible gifts from Tony recently.  Over take-out one night, leaning on one another on their couch, they shared their thoughts.

“You know what Tony offered me today?”

“What?” Thor asked, struggling to pick up his noodles using only his chopsticks.

“He offered to built me a particle accelerator.”

“A particle accelerator?”  Thor’s brows furrowed in thought.  “Like the one you took me too in Europe?  Wasn’t that –“

“Twenty-seven kilometres big? Yeah.  I mean, they can be smaller than that, but I don’t think Tony was exactly suggesting anything low-key.  He told me he’d fund it all, and the research could all be done by me, no interference from him.  I think he meant that as a bonus, I don’t know whether he realises I actually _like_ working with him.”

“Tony is full of grand gestures and gifts.  You know he has made many contributions to the Asgardian refugee settlement, and you know I am grateful but recently… I think it’s more than just generosity.”

“What d’you mean?”  Bruce got a fork from the take-out box, feeling that it was ridiculous to want Thor struggle with it any longer.

“I think it’s something – guilt or apology or shame – something that’s making him give us so much.   When I was wealthy, I would give to those in need, offer gifts to those who needed something with a purpose, not give my friends toys they did not want.”

Bruce agreed at heart, but neither him nor Thor wanted to confront him about it.  With all that Tony had done for him, for Asgard, it didn’t seem like the right time, didn’t seem tactful to ask him about it now.

Thankfully, Hulk had no such reluctance.

Hulk was back in the compound, in his warehouse-sized room, after training with Valkyrie for the day, when Tony came in.

“Hey Hulkie, how’s the workout?”

“Good.  Training bots smashed.”  He made a swipe at the air with his fist, imitating what he’d done to the robots.

“Good on you, big guy.  I’ve been thinking –“ Tony took a holo-pad out of his pocket and started up the projection.  “How would you like this?” The image came into focus: a suit, lightweight in comparison to Tony’s but still large and study enough for the Hulk. 

Hulk’s only response was the grunt in disapproval.

“What?” Tony quizzed.  “Not strong enough for you?  I can add plating if you wa –“

“No.”

“No to what, the suit or the plating?”

“No.”

“Hulk, if you want me to help you, you’re gonna have to be a little more specific than that.”

Ripping the holo-pad out of Tony’s hand and smashing it onto the floor, Hulk repeated himself.

“No.  Hulk not need suit, Hulk not need armor or weapons –“ He gestured at the array of axes and hammers that Tony had already gifted him, on display on the wall of his room.  “Hulk smash.  With own hands.  Skin stronger than armour, not need toys.”

Tony raised his hands in defeat and backed away.

“Okay, I get it, Hulk strong all on his own, just let me know if there ever _is_ anything you need.”

Hulk growled.

“NO!  Hulk not need anything, Banner not need atom smasher!  Why Stark always give us things we not need?”

“I…” Tony struggled to answer. “That’s my job.  Steve gives us direction, Bruce figures out the science, you smash, I pay for –“ he gestured around them both “- all of this.”  He paused, his voice coming back a little quieter.  “You’re the strongest Avenger, I’m the richest Avenger.”

Shaking his head in anger, Hulk, lifted Tony up onto his shoulder, ignoring his yelps, and plonking him back down, onto Hulk’s mammoth-sized sofa.

“No.  Money is nothing, money is numbers and paper, money is puny. Stark–“ Hulk prodded Tony right in the arc reactor with one of his massive fingers. “Stark not puny.  Stark saved city, Stark saved world.  Stark lived even though Stark smashed by Hulk.”

“I only survived that because of my suit –“

“No.  Humans puny,” Hulk started to explain, telling Tony his concept slowly and deliberately, as though he were a kindergarten teacher.  “Stark build suit, make himself strong, like Banner got fried by gamma ray, became Hulk.  Same thing.”

There was a dazed, sad look in Tony’s eyes, like he wasn’t quite absorbing anything that Hulk was saying and it made Hulk sad.  He wanted to cheer Stark up, but nothing was working.  As he spoke, he found his voice getting more high-pitched, the floor getting closer to him.

Banner struggled to keep standing, coming back to himself, a little off-kilter.  One look at Tony and he remembered the conversation he’d been having with Hulk.

“Tony, you can’t seriously think that.”  Bruce hurled himself up onto Hulk’s sofa to sit by him.

“Think what?” 

“That your money is all you’re worth.  You’re a genius, Tony, a great fighter, member of our team.”

“A team I helped destroy for two years.  It was my ‘genius’ that created Ultron, look how that turned out.”

“That was me as much as it was you.  Tony, you’ve gotta realise that we care about you more than that.”

“Why?”  Tony snapped.  “What more do I have to offer?  I’m an engineer who’s been creating weapons for most of my life, and just when I thought I’d turned it around, we go and build a death-bot.  I’ll never be as good at protecting as Steve, or as good a team player, I’m never gonna be as clever as you or Shuri, I’m definitely not as good a person as Peter, or T’challa, or Rhodey or almost anyone on our team.  But I have money, money I don’t deserve, so I’ve gotta make use of that.”

Bruce saw a struggle he could recognise in Tony, and softened a little, wanting to show him how much he meant.

“You don’t have to be the best at anything, Tony, you do enough just by being good.  You’re a good friend to me, treated me like I wasn’t a threat when everyone else talked to me like they were walking on eggshells.  You’ve meant a lot to Peter, shown him how to be a hero.”

“I gave him the suit, I asked him for help, but beyond that, Bruce, I’ve honestly done nothing.  The best kind of role models he could have are the smart, well-trained women from Wakanda, not an aging billionaire who runs away from looking at his own mental health.”

“Then stop running.  I know it’s hard, I’ve been there myself but Tony, the world’s been saved.  By _you._   Multiple times. You can look after yourself a little and still be good to us.”  Bruce’s need to let Tony know how important he was out-competed his usual reluctance to stop talking about emotions. “ _That’s_ what we care about.  You being there with us, not your money.”

The presents stopped after that.  Tony still took part in funding the Asgardian refugees but didn’t just help with money anymore, he helped them with contacts, helped training them for life on Earth and employing them. 

It was too difficult a subject for Bruce to talk to Tony twice about, but he thought he’d got through to him.   His Tony-funded lab didn’t go away, but he found Tony in it a lot more, there to discus things with him, not just throw money at his work. 

The most noticeable difference had been how he was with Peter.  Tony wasn’t stingy with his money, it never got to that point, but he never made it the reason he was in the room.  He spent more time with Peter, and Shuri, his newfound friend, talking science with them, ready to listen and work on things together rather than feeling belittled by the Wakandans’ wealth.

**Author's Note:**

> Merry Christmas! and happy Hogmanay and holidays!
> 
> I love comments, you wonderful folks, tell me what you thought!
> 
> Find me on tumblr @goddessofgamma


End file.
